SPECIAL FEATURE: Power from garbage, Will the scale tip for Cebu City?

MANILA, Philippines - If plans materialize, what at present is a stinky waste repository in Cebu City will become a new source of electricity for the entire Cebu island, not to mention a long-term solution to the city's garbage problem.

Greenergy Solutions Incorporated (GSI), an international firm, is offering to build a Waste-to-Energy Power Plant at the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill in Barangay Inayawan at zero cost to the city government.

The firm wants to convert about 4.5 hectares of the Inayawan Landfill into a Waste-To-Energy (WTE) Gasification Facility that will process 500 to 1,000 tons of garbage per hour, which is seen to generate about 20-megawatts. That's 1.8 million tons of residual waste converted into energy.

The project will run for 25 years, but the firm promised to complete development in about two hectares of the area in six months.

The proposal seems too good to refuse, but city officials are yet to make a decision. This despite endorsement from the city's Solid Waste Management Board (SWMB).

GSI sees the project as practical because it uses green or environment-friendly technology that can eliminate garbage while producing valuable by-products such as electricity.

Problem

The Cebu City Government used to spend hundreds of millions to operate and maintain a 17-hectare landfill that has, for several times, given up on the increasing volume of garbage generated by the entire city. The amount of garbage is more than what the facility can manage.

The Inayawan landfill was built to last for only seven years and was supposed to stop operating about seven years ago in 2005. It kept on working until late 2011. In December last year, pressed with the demands from the environmental department and other groups to terminate the landfill's operation, the city government through Mayor Michael Rama ordered the landfill closed.

As an immediate solution, garbage from the city was diverted to a private landfill in Consolacion town for which the city government still has to appropriate millions to pay for the tipping fee of P700 per ton of garbage. The city spends at least P5 million every month for the tipping fee alone. The city dumps at least 250 tons of garbage in Consolacion daily. The P5 million does not include the rental of the garbage trucks and the cost of fuel. The trucks travel at least 12 kilometers from Cebu City to Consolacion.

This setup is expected to continue until the city is able to find a long-term solution to the growing waste problem, a problem that is expected to get worse as the city continues to embrace development.

Proposal

After the city stopped dumping garbage at the Inayawan Landfill, the local SWMB began soliciting proposals from various companies and groups for the disposal of the facility.

The Inayawan landfill was left with over 1.8 million tons of residual waste, something that the city cannot simply abandon at the area. At least 10 proposals were submitted to SWMB, including that of GSI's.

In an earlier statement, SWMB Presiding Officer Janeses Ponce said GSI has been selected because its proposal will entail zero cost to the city government.

“What excites us the most about the proposed IWMA is the fact the whole project will be fully funded by GSI and its foreign partners. Again, not a single centavo of our precious public funds will be expended. Neither will its funding be dependent on any public guarantee using government property, asset or credit,” Ponce said.

Also, the city will not be required to pay Tipping Fees or any other charge for the remediation of the landfill, as well as the proper disposal of the solid waste it generates daily.

“This alone is what sets the GSI proposal apart. All the other proposals would require huge expenses that we can hardly afford,” Ponce added.

The Technology

Under the proposed Integrated Waste Management Agreement (IWMA), the 1.8 million tons of residual waste at the landfill will undergo a process called Refused Derived Fuel (RDF).

RDF begins with segregating the solid waste components recyclable, combustible and non-combustible components. The combustible component - after it gets shredded, compressed, and dried out - is what will be converted into energy.

The initial by-product of the RDF will undergo another process in the thermal gasifier. The end-product is the syngas (Synthesis Gas).

The biodegradable waste, on the other hand, will be processed into an Anaerobic Digester to produce biogas.

Both syngas and biogas can be used as fuel to generate electricity. Both are considered renewable energy sources and replacement to fossil fuels that produce carbon dioxide when converted into electricity.

The technology also leaves no leftover so there is no need to find another site for residuals.

When fully operational, the proposed WTE Gasification facility can take care of both the residual waste at the landfill and the daily generated waste of the city.

Along the way, if the city government would permit, waste from other Local Government Units may be accommodated.

Other LGUs will have to pay tipping fees as additional revenue that may be shared by GSI, as the developer and the city government as the host LGU.

The proposed IWMA is in accord with the Cebu City landfill gas and Waste-to-Energy project that has been officially approved at the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC) as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project under Project 4669, Ponce said.

The project shall reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by capturing and flaring the methane gas from the existing Inayawan landfill and avoid new GHG emissions from the decomposition of additional organic waste.

“The technology to be employed by GSI and its partners was overwhelmingly approved and endorsed especially by the members of the board who are also technical experts in their respective fields,” Ponce said in an earlier press statement.

Apart from the GHG emission, GSI also seeks to eliminate the noise, dust, odor and bio-aerosols emitted from the landfill site. It also seeks to eliminate the leachate and prevent the contamination of surface and underground water.

Equity

Since the project will not cost the city government a single centavo, the share of the city in the project is the access of GSI to the landfill as long as what will be agreed in the contract.

The city government will also provide technical support and assistance.

A source said that once the deal is sealed, a Special Purpose Corporation will be organized and established. The SPC shall be composed of the city government and GSI along with its foreign partners that will provide, among other things, engineering, technical and capital support.

GSI will partner with five foreign renewable energy investors and clean technology developers.—/JMO (FREEMAN)